


Numen

by BlossomingDia



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Accidents, Ambiguous Setting/Time, Candles, Feeding, Fires, Ghosts, Gift Giving, M/M, Murder, Near Death Experiences, Past Character Death, Protectiveness, Public Nudity, Punishment, Spirits, Starvation, Strangulation, Suicidal Thoughts, Supernatural Elements, Violence, Witchcraft, Witches, Worship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-14 02:20:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20184643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlossomingDia/pseuds/BlossomingDia
Summary: Condemned for a crime that he didn't commit, Jungwoo has to find a way to survive alone against the elements. Though he comes to find that he's not really alone, as something is watching in the darkness and seems to be looking after him...





	Numen

The sky was cast in grey as Jungwoo ducked through the streets crowded with stalls selling wares for market day. Behind him the piercing sound of the whistle parted the crowd as the two men shouted warnings for him to stop yet he continued to run as fast as he could, ignoring the shouts of those he collided with on his mission to evade the men following him. He turned down into an alley which he remembered distinctly having a small gate which was locked, preventing access to anyone unwilling to climb over the fence which he promptly climbed onto as he reached the barricade; scaling it quickly he tugged at his cloak to pull it over but found it caught in the sharpened edges of the wire which ensnared him. Yanking at the clasp, he let out a little hiss as the men rounded the corner and began to pull on the bottom of his cloak in an effort to topple him as he pulled at the jammed clasp.

With a particularly hard pull he found himself falling backwards to the ground which collided harshly into his back and knocked the wind out of his lungs as he stared up into the faces of the two officers who delivered a harsh kick to his stomach to ensure his incapacitation before putting him in handcuffs and dragging him away. The journey to the prison was a short one, during which the officers had held him tightly by his arms and cast fearful glances at his hands every time they did so much as twitch slightly. His hands were restrained tightly behind his back and his eyes were blindfolded when he was thrown into his cell with the warning that his lawyer would be arriving to prepare him for his trial later in the afternoon. But when his lawyer had arrived Jungwoo could hear the gentle clinking of chains as he perched perched on the bench which hung from the wall on the other side of the room, he too seemed to burn with the familiar nervousness that he’d sensed in the officers when they’d arrested him. 

“What have I been arrested for?” Jungwoo asked quietly “I’ve not done anything to warrant an arrest.”

The lawyer smiled at him though it was thin and strained “You’ve been accused of witchcraft. Enchanting children if you want to be more specific, though if you just plead guilty they’ll be easier on you and you’ll be spared the death penalty-“

“Which children have I supposedly enchanted?” He exclaimed as his tone dripped with disbelief.

There was the sound of papers rustling as the lawyer flicked through the pages and pointed to a section on one of the pages with a little grimace “Zhong Chenle, Na Jaemin and Park Jisung to name a few, apparently the children only became sick after your visits to them and doctors cant find any source of illness in their bodies so the only natural conclusion is witchcraft. Though, why would you want to enchant children? Are you getting some sort of power from them?”

“No, because I’m not a witch and I’ve never seen witchcraft let alone performed it!”

The lawyer only tutted and stood as the police re-entered his cell and unhooked his hands to take him to the courtroom which stood only a short distance away from the prison and was headed by a judge who exuded an intimidating atmosphere that could be felt even without seeing the man who stared down at him. “Kim Jungwoo, you stand accused of witchcraft and enchantment. How do you plead to these accusations?”

“Not guilty! I’m not a witch!” He cried before his lawyer could get a word out. 

“Are you certain? A quick confession will save you from the death penalty.” 

“I’m not guilty!”

There were quiet murmurs that had him glancing around to try and gage where the other people were in the courtroom, still their voices seldom raised above a whisper before the blindfold was torn away from his eyes and he was pulled up to the judge’s table. Quiet words were exchanged again then the judge leaned closer and recoiled with a gasp before dismissing Jungwoo back to his table at which even his lawyer recoiled from him. 

“What? What’s wrong?” He asked quietly. 

A mirror was thrust at him and he opened the compact quickly, holding it up to his face and almost dropping it as he saw his own face reflected back at him looking almost unrecognisable. It was his eyes that repulsed them – the left dark and shining in the dim light of the room and the right a bright brilliant white, circled by a halo of impossible black with a pupil that reflected the shape of the sun – and he too found it repulsive as the mirror slipped from his hand and cracked upon contact with the floor. 

“The signs of witchcraft are clear, but this is the most disturbing case that I’ve seen. You, young man, have been touched by the devil and I have no choice but to condemn you to a fate worse than death therefore I condemn you to solitude in Rosewood Manor. You will be kept there under observation until you die.” He slammed his gavel down onto the desk and Jungwoo was seized and pulled away into the darkness of the cells to await his fate.

-

Rosewood Manor seemed to cast a shadow over the town as it loomed down upon them from the hill that overlooked it. For centuries that shadow had been cast into the minds of children and Jungwoo could feel himself begin to Tremble as the guards secured him inside of the grounds with chains and padlocks and scathing glances that warned him of the consequences of trying to escape what they had laid out for him. The villagers too seemed to shake, making sure to stand a safe distance away to spit at him and throw things before retreating back into the safety of their own homes which were promptly locked and bolted. Only one woman remained after the others and as soon as the crowd had dissipated, she approached with furtive glances back into the town square as if she were afraid that someone would witness her slipping a little tin through the spaces in the wrought iron of the gates.

“The candle will protect you,” She whispered “Try to make it last as long as you can or else the things in that house will come sooner than you expect. They’ll be back for you in the spring if you survive.”

Quickly, she hurried into her house and didn’t so much as allow a curtain to twitch in his direction as he grasped the box to his chest and pulled his hood up to protect him from the rain which began to fall as he began his ascent up the mossy paths to the door of the manor. It was large enough – faded to a grimy black colour with the age of the paint which emanated the smell of rot as he entered the building, stepping carefully over the floorboards which protested violently at his actions – there was a drawing room at the front, filled with papers which were thick with dust and were piled up all over the floor, extending into the small sitting room next to it which contained a few seats covered in cloths and a piano, still shiny and lacquered as if it were newly bought. 

Upstairs was a different story, eaten away with age and in some places nearly totally collapsed into itself though a few rooms had remained mostly unscathed, only showing holes in the ceilings as the proof of their age. He contemplated lighting the candle but the words of the woman echoed in his mind and had him shaking his head as he returned down stairs to check the functionality of the amenities – none of which showed signs of life. 

Only when the house had slipped into total darkness did Jungwoo allow himself to light the candle he’d found inside of the box, taking upstairs with him to glance inside of the rooms to find a bedroom that would be suitable enough for him to sleep in. The one at the end of the hall was deemed the best being the only one in which the bed seemed perfectly preserved, untouched by the rain which dripped steadily through the ceiling in the other rooms. In fact the room seemed perfectly maintained. He shrugged it off and slipped inside, pulling the door closed as he set the candle down and climbed under the covers, he contemplated keeping the flickering light burning to ward away the darkness as he slept yet the whispers of the villagers echoed through his mind and left him leaning over to blow the candle out, relying on the light from the window to keep the darkness away from him. The bed was comfortable enough and Jungwoo felt the numbness in his head growing as he felt himself slipping deeper and deeper into sleep. Behind him, the door creaked open with the force of some invisible wind which seemed to linger at his side before flowing back out as if it had never been there at all. The sun dragged him from him sleep the next morning and as Jungwoo blinked the haze of fatigue from his eyes the sight of the open door caught his eye. Frowning, he rose from the bed and began to push at the door, seeing how it swung closed with a heavy thud and stayed firmly in that position. He shrugged off the unease in his stomach and cast a glance down to his clothes which had grown grimy from the dust inside of the house, he longed to bathe himself and clean away the layer of filth on his skin but simply resigned himself to it knowing that the water in the manor had probably not been running for many years. 

Outside the window the gardens still hung heavy with the fog that seemed to roll in from every crook and crevice yet didn’t seem to exist outside of the manor’s boundaries. “I suppose I could go and look around out there…” He muttered as he retrieved a blanket which he wrapped around his shoulders as a make shift cloak and headed out of the house into the garden. He stopped on the steps with a disappointed sigh as he held his hand out in front of him “Damn,” He muttered “There’s no use in going out to look, I cant even see my own hands in this stupid fog.” As he turned to head back inside a cold wind swept past him, pushing icy rain into his face and knocking his hood back in time for him to see as the fog seemed to swell with a curious light before dissipating. Jungwoo stepped forwards curiously and the fog seemed to move around him, carving itself out before him and creating a path through the gardens. 

“Well…” He muttered to himself then before walking along the cobbled path through the garden, taking in the sight of the rose bushes that surrounded him which glared a garish red against the tangle of dead shrubs behind them. Reaching out, he took one into his hand and watched how it seemed to open at his touch then shrivel in on itself as the familiar cold feeling crept over Jungwoo’s body, propelling him away from the bushes and down the path at the side of the house which dripped with moisture as he headed towards a gate surrounded by ivy and tangled with wilted roses. He pushed at the gate gently and was relieved when it opened with a small creak, granting him access to the space beyond. Resuming his trail he found himself stood on top of a small hill with a sheer drop on the other side of it, the grass was smattered with jagged stones that protruded from the ground in tangled messes of ivy. Staring out into the waves below, he considered whether or not it would be better to simply jump to his death instead of waiting for whatever punishment the woman said would be coming in the spring though he found himself turning from the rocks and instead pulled at the ivy covering the stone nearest to him then leaned closer to decipher the characters etched into it. 

“… Seo … Loving mother…” He muttered before sitting back on his haunches to squint at the faded lettering. There was another one on his left and he quickly repeated the process, delighted to find that the sheath of ivy had protected the stone from the rain which seemed to relentlessly pelt it. “Here lies Sparky, a loving companion…” He read quietly, recoiling as his brain connected the stones to their purpose as he felt the bile rising in his throat. The rain seemed to still around him and Jungwoo looked around quickly to find the dark clouds still hanging over him, yet not a single drop seemed to fall onto him. The sound of rushing water met his ears and he approached the noise carefully, squealing with delight upon the discovery of a pool that released coils of heat into the air as Jungwoo reached and dipped his fingers into it. 

It wasn’t just any pool of water, he realised, it was a hot spring! With a brief glance around and upwards he began to strip his clothes off, sinking down into the water once fully nude and letting out a pleased sigh as he rubbed the layers of grime from his body and let the warm water wash over his body. After a short while of simply enjoying the feeling of being alone he reached out and pulled his pieces of clothing in one by one to wash some of the dirt out of them then laid them across the rocks that shielded him from view. Turning slightly he grabbed his underwear from the grass and paused. 

From the corner of his eye, he could see a piece of red fabric shaking slightly in the breeze – and a foot next to it, clad in a leather shoe. He inhaled a shaky breath and turned slightly more, trying not to make it obvious that he was trying to glimpse at the person who was watching him, finding red trousers framed by a long coat that swayed slightly as the cold breeze wrapped around him. He whipped around to face the figure fully, pupils blown out with panic when he found nothing there except a single rose which lay shrivelled and wet on the grass ahead of him.

With haste, he snatched his clothes into his hands and stood to climb out of the hot spring finding his foot giving out on him as he did so and sending him plummeting down towards the rocks where his face collided with a sharp pain and his vision faded into darkness. 

When he woke again, he was settled into bed with a ice wrapped in a cloth resting on his forehead. He sat up and was met with the gentle swaying of the room which had him promptly sinking back down into the pillows to try and stop the sickening motion. Had he managed to walk back through the garden? How? The very thought of moving from the bed had his stomach rocking with sickness so managing to walk back through the gardens into the bedroom seemed damn near impossible with consideration into his physical state. He rolled slightly onto his side, preparing to go to sleep by allowing his eyes to slip closed then snapping them back open at the sight of a glass on the bed side table along with a small white bottle. Pulling them closer for inspection he found a little note attached to the glass, simply reading: ‘Take two. Will help with the pain.’ 

Briefly, he considered taking them but set the glass and the pills back on the bedside table with a little scowl. There was no way that he was just going to let them throw him in the manor like some common criminal then indebt himself further by accepting anything they had to offer him. Sleep would be a good enough remedy alone. 

-

It was several days later when the first gnaws of pain settled into his stomach feeling like a rolling stomach ache at first then developing into something sinister that gnawed away at his insides as his stomach pleaded with him for something -anything – to eat. He’d just settled himself at the piano with the candle burning bright above him and begun to play to pass the time and detract from the incessant pain in his stomach. 

The rain pelted against the roof and the floors above him, allowing a steady drip of water to slip through the gaps in the floorboards into the room which began as a mild annoyance but slowly began to grate on his nerves as he listened to its steady drip. “Enough!” He shouted as he bolted up from the bench in front of the piano, grasping his hair and pulling at it in frustration as he looked for the source of the water and seized a cloth to put under it to silence the sound. The steady drip persisted despite his attempts to silence it and with his starved misery he allowed himself to settle onto his knees and weep at the misery of his predicament. 

He was going to go insane. Perhaps he was insane already, lying on the floor crying about water and what might or might not be lingering in the corner of his eyes. A gentle noise caught his attention and with teary eyes, he looked up to find a small fruit rolling towards him. Red and so deliciously shiny in the dim light the candle provided that he couldn’t help but snatch it up from the floor boards and shove it into his mouth, chewing it quickly then spitting the pit out and beginning to look for another morsel when the gentle sound returned. They appeared one by one, rolling across the floor once the previous one was devoured and as Jungwoo felt the pain of hunger lift from his body he found himself crawling closer to the source of the fruit, they seemed to roll from a dark corner in the hallway and for a moment he stared into the darkness to try and distinguish some shape of a person within it. The darkness only seemed to stare back into him with an air of curiosity that had Jungwoo turning from it and returning back to the piano.

The darkness seemed to follow him, settling in the crevices of the walls behind him to watch as his fingers moved across the keyboard with clumsy grace, trying to pull the fragments of his memories into a song that he might of heard somewhere. The air seemed to fall still and Jungwoo too allowed himself to fall quiet as the felt a cold sensation move in next to him and wrap itself around his hands, moving them slowly from one combination of notes to another and then disappearing. 

He didn’t bother to blow the candle out that night. 

-

The seasons slipped by slowly dragging the already cold and downtrodden Jungwoo into a colder haze of snow and rain which dripped steadily through the holes in the roof and set the house in a perpetual state of iciness. Jungwoo had found himself huddled under the blankets on most days, trying to stave off the creeping cold that seemed to slip under the door and settle itself around him, waiting for the slightest movement to nip at his cheeks with growing intensity that left his cheeks patchy with redness and stiff. The gentle flickering and swaying of the candle did nothing to ease his irritation as the familiar tension appeared in the room across from him, signalling that the wind that roamed the house freely throughout the day had settled in across from him and was content to simply watch him shiver on the bed while messing with the candle. 

One day, he could do little more than cry into the frozen air as he struck up the last of his matches in a vain attempt to keep the candle burning for some -_any _– type of warmth which might make him feel less miserable. Something seemed to shift around him, and the match which smouldered with the remains of a failed fire was held in the air for a moment before some strange breath was cast over it and it burned again with unfaltering light. With caution he leaned from the nest of blankets and seized the match, bringing it to the wick of the half melted candle where it licked and caught fire illuminating the relief and happiness that painted itself over Jungwoo’s features. When he slept that night his cheeks weren’t tainted by the wetness of tears for the first night of the winter. __

_ _

_ _The sunlight streamed through the windows the next morning, bathing it in the weak golden light of the dawn which was cut by the bright sparks which danced in the fireplace at the end of the bed and filled with a luxurious warmth that sank into Jungwoo’s bones, filling him with such a sense of happiness that he could do little but sink back into the pillows with a relieved sigh. Beside the fire sat a basket which displayed a thick stack of papers and other kindling materials along with another box of matches, Jungwoo only raised an eye brow at it then glanced around to look for other indications of another presence. There on the foot of the bed sat a pile of clothes which were obviously bulkier than his simple linens from the size of the pile. _ _

_ _

_ _The presence seemed to linger briefly as if it was waiting for some sort reaction from him, and all Jungwoo could do was roll his head to the side and smile towards the empty space whispering a quiet “Thank you.” Before allowing his eyes to slip closed. _ _

_ _

_ _It seemed to become a common occurrence from that point. The presence would follow him wherever he went, observing his every move for some indication of his needs and subsequently providing whatever he needed whether it was new clothes, books, food that stemmed beyond cherries into breads, cheeses or even a few times stews which had bubbled enticingly from the stove when he had returned from washing in the spring upon the cliffs. It was flattering of course and Jungwoo relished in the happiness of living with the undivided devotion of another being yet something nagged at the corner of his mind. _ _

_ _

_ _His benefactor had always managed to evade his gaze, always being a presence that he was aware of but could never lay his eyes upon. Occasionally, he would be visible from the corner of his eye clad in red and draped in some fabric that seemed to shift alluringly in the light as the dew clung to it. Jungwoo would turn to greet him only to be met with empty air; still he spoke to it and hoped that the man listened as he listened for any creak in the floorboards that might grant him a chance to thank the man. None came. The gifts continued to come though and with every one he accepted the tight knot of guilt tangled in his gut._ _

_ _

_ _One afternoon when the sky was streaked with lightning and the candle danced behind him as he brushed his hair slowly with a large silver backed hairbrush that had been laid on his pillow earlier in the day, he caught sight of the familiar figure lingering behind him. He was tall, with square shoulders and a face that seemed to dissolve into the darkness of the corners obscuring it from his view. Remarkably, he seemed similarly dressed to Jungwoo himself clad in a red suit – more embellished than Jungwoo’s own with its collar and sleeves ruffled with layers of lace which intertwined with the delicate velvet patterning on the jacket – and a hooded cloak which was clasped firmly at his throat with an eye shaped pendant that seemed to stare into his soul unfalteringly. Continuing to brush his hair he looked up at the man and settled his gaze on him with a sweet smile, allowing his cheeks to glow with pinkness at the thought of catching the man’s attention. _ _

_ _

_ _“Thank you for helping me, Sir.” He said “Did you get convicted of witchcraft too?”_ _

_ _

_ _There was silence._ _

_ _

_ _“That’s how I ended up here. I’ve been meaning to find you for a while to thank you for giving me all this stuff to help me out…”_ _

_ _

_ _Silence._ _

_ _

_ _“…And I was meaning to ask you if you, perhaps, wanted to indulge in some company. We’re the only two here after all and I thought that we may as well get to know each other more!”_ _

_ _

_ _The clasp seemed to glow with a strange white light which sent chills running up Jungwoo’s arms as he set the brush down onto the little table in front of the mirror and looked away from the figure behind him._ _

_ _

_ _“Of course! How presumptuous of me to assume your motivations would be anything more than courtesy, you’ll have to excuse my ignorance-“_ _

_ _

_ _There was the sound of cracking and the blonde looked up into the mirror finding it cracked into a spiders web of fragments which laced together into the shape that arched over his head and twisted into some semblance of a heart around his face. He turned as if to confront the man but only found that the shape had disappeared from his station behind him which was instead occupied by a vase of roses which dripped with dew as they blew in some invisible wind and he felt his stomach twist with a fluttering nervousness, brushing his fingers over the petals he allowed a smile to grace his features._ _

_ _

_ _The man couldn’t avoid him forever and he was determined to meet him._ _

_ _

_ _As it happened, meeting his benefactor was actually quite a difficult task on account of the fact that he seemed to be determinedly avoiding him. His presence no longer lingered in between the crooks of and crevices of Jungwoo’s activities and the food waiting on the stove seemed to become more frequent as he avoided their usual ritual of feeding him slowly and surely in favour of allowing him to care for himself. _ _

_ _

_ _For the first time since his arrival Jungwoo burned with an unfamiliar sense of loneliness as his days became empty and colder despite the absence of the cold wind that followed him with persistence and the warmth of spring that flooded through the windows. He resigned himself to the familiar comfort of the piano bench, where he played the _ _

_ _He played the same chords repeatedly with the hope that the ring of the sound would do something to fill the vacuum of silence that seemed to enshroud him. _ _

_ _ Instead, it seemed to act as some sort of alarm as the air shifted around him then swelled with the familiarity of the man who watched from the door way as his fingers moved across the keys with grace. He chose his words carefully and softened them with the melancholy tones of the keys under his fingers, hoping to make them more palatable for the man “I’m sorry if I upset you the other afternoon. It wasn’t my intention to do so. I just hoped that I might be able to get closer with you…”_ _

_ _

_ _He paused to wait for a response but the air instead felt heavy with the weight of expectation, as if the man were silently pushing him to continue. _ _

_ _

_ _“I feel some sort of strange connection to you, and I wanted to know if it was gratitude or something else!” He said in a rush as his fingers fell completely still on the keys and the noise seemed to stick in the air between them. _ _

_ _

_ _Contemplating what to say next, he paused at the sound of shoes moving across the floor until the stopped behind him and the two waited for the other to make a move with anticipation. The hands reached out and for a second he expected them to find their way into his hair, to touch his face or perhaps settle on his shoulders as they had done before but instead they wrapped securely around his neck to push him to the ground as the grip tightened slowly, squeezing the air from his lungs out in a strangled breath as he looked up with bulging eyes into the face of the man who held him down. In that moment he was convinced that he’d never seen a more beautiful person. _ _

_ _

_ _He had a handsome face with thick lips, dark hair and soft looking skin though it was his eyes that he found the most fascinating. The right, a dark almost black brown; the left, a brilliant white, circled by a ring of impossible black with a pupil in shape of the sun. Smiling, he reached up for it, touching his fingers to the eyelid as he felt his body trembled with the remainders of breath and begin to fade away feeling oddly fulfilled as it drifted away only to be pulled back by the sudden rush of air into his lungs as the pressure released._ _

_ _

_ _He breathed deeply and stared up into the face of the man, expecting him to be looking back but only finding empty space above him that had him scrambling to his feet in desperation. “Did I do something wrong again?” He asked to the empty air “Why do you keep running from me?” _ _

_ _

_ _Silence. Then the rustling of paper caught his attention. _ _

_ _

_ _On the top of the piano sat a book which he’d been absently scribbling in when he was struck with boredom, but enticed him with new words written in a sharp sloping script that curled over its self. ‘You did nothing wrong. I’m not running. I’m always there with you.’ The lines read, enticing a sigh of frustration from the blondes lips. _ _

_ _

_ _“Well why can I not see you or find you when you’re there?” _ _

_ _

_ _‘You can’t see that which isn’t there.’_ _

_ _

_ _The words were cryptic at best and did little to aid the already puzzled Jungwoo who could only stare at the words with a blank look upon his features. Behind him there was a crash that sent him to his feet, scrambling to find the source of the noise; discovering it to be a portrait of three individuals. He flipped the frame and squinted to read the script in the murky darkness making it out as ‘Mr and Mrs Seo with their son, John.’ _ _

_ _

_ _“You’re not really here are you?” He asked the darkness “I can’t see you because you’re dead.”_ _

_ _

_ _‘Yes.’ The paper read._ _

_ _

_ _“How did you die? If you don’t mind me asking of course.”_ _

_ _

_ _Again the script answered ‘The villagers fear that which they don’t understand. You and me are the same in that sense. They decided to take appropriate action.’_ _

_ _

_ _He was quiet for a moment as he glanced around the blackened walls of the manor with a little frown “Did they… set the manor on fire because they believed you were involved in witchcraft?”_ _

_ _

_ _‘Yes. It is the basis for the new punishment for witchcraft. You will learn this soon enough.’_ _

_ _

_ _“What do you mean? That I’ll learn it soon enough?’_ _

_ _

_ _The paper remained unchanged for a few beats as if the spirit seemed to be contemplating what to say to him before beginning to write again. ‘Today. It is the first day of spring. They plan to check if you’ve survived. Any other have perished long before this point, yet you survived. They fear you and will burn you for the crime of witchcraft.’_ _

_ _

_ _“But I’m not a witch!” He protested as the panic began to build, hot and heavy inside of his throat and the tears pricked at the corners of his eyes “I’ve never been a witch!” _ _

_ _

_ _‘True. But it was no coincidence that you ended up here with me. You were destined for greatness and I will provide you the power for it if you will accept my help.’_ _

_ _

_ _“The power…?”_ _

_ _

_ _‘If you seek to see me then the thing that they gave you to ward me away must be used to instigate an act of rebellion that will begin your freedom. Freedom for all.’ Subconciously his eyes drifted to the wavering light of the candle sitting on the table as the sound of the gates creaking open drifted through the gardens to his ears and he grasped his quickly, raising it with determination to the drapes and papers with mingled with the flame in some strange dance before the flamed licked at them; consuming them and releasing a strange smoke which writhed in agony for a moment, accumulating then solidifying into a shape. The shape of person._ _

_ _

_ _The shape hovered above him, surrounded by a veil of smoke that shimmered oddly in the light of the fire and seemed to drape over his shape cut only by the glowing crown of candles upon his head, melted over each other yet twisted into a wreath that shone with the flames from the wicks as he bent to pick up Jungwoo’s candle then set it with the others upon his head which seemed to melt into the new addition as if it had always been there. At his magnificence Jungwoo slumped down onto his knees only staring up at him with wide eyes as the spirit seemed to command the fire to burn brighter than before, consuming the stacks of books and papers on the surfaces as the figures of the judge and the officers who had arrested him burst through the door. A hand was offered to him as the spirit radiated adoration and lust for the pet who had listened so carefully and accepted his love in every form that it had come and in the growing inferno, Jungwoo pressed a kiss to the pale skin, relishing as his presence flowed into his body like smoke._ _

_ _

_ _His prosecutors were discarded as a heap of bent bones and stringy meat with little more than a little flick of the hand and they proceeded outside, sparing a glance to the villagers who looked back at them in horror from the base of the hill as their feet lifted from the ground and they ascended above the town. _ _

_ _

_ _“Doesn’t it feel good to be together at last?” The spirit asked as his voices echoed from the corners of Jungwoo’s mind “I’ve been taking care of you since you came to me. I’ll take care of you now. We’ll be free together.”_ _

_ _

_ _The screams of the villagers resounded in his ears yet all he could do was smile. This was their adoration given form. This was their freedom._ _


End file.
